Braehmer stops Maccarinelli to keep WBA belt

Maccarinelli had his right eye swollen shut already by the end of the second round, when he said he wanted to continue despite being unable to see “anything” with it.

A doctor examined the eye in the third and fifth rounds, declaring the 33-year-old fit to continue both times.

“When you see it like that, you want to hit it even more. That’s boxing,” Braehmer said. “I caught him well with my left. Then I wanted to be too spectacular. I wanted too much. It was good that it ended then.”

Just as the bell rang for the sixth to begin, Maccarinelli’s trainer, Gary Lockett, stopped the bout.

“I can’t let him go on. I can’t let him go on,” Lockett said.

The 35-year-old Braehmer improves to 43-2 (32 KOs) with the first successful defense of the title he won by beating American Marcus Oliveira in December.